Handbook

The subject follows on from CHEM101, using concepts and principles concerning the structure of matter and the nature of chemical change, applied first in aqueous reactions of acid base, and redox systems. A suite of inorganic compounds and reactions types including periodicity is then introduced covering transition metal complexes and inorganic non-metals, of S, P, N relevant to biological and environmental systems. Organic chemistry is specifically introduced with a detailed look at structure and isomerism leading to a treatment of organic functional groups and reactions based on mechanistic descriptions of the reaction systems. The mechanistic approach considers reactivity and stability of chemical species and uses thermodynamic, kinetic and equilibrium considerations to describe and analyse reactions. The application of structure concepts and reaction types is used to understand the properties of natural and synthetic polymers. For the detailed subject content, see subject content section within the CHEM102 subject handbook, and this content listing is also available on the subject Moodle site.